BANKING ANALYTICS

Ranking of the Azerbaijani banking sector (ranking includes the information component of the banking sector, the main events of the world economy, the analytical review of the main indices of the banks which are being ranked)

Iranian president appoints special representative in Turkey’s affairs

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has appointed Iranian Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Mahmoud Vaezi as his special representative in Turkey's Affairs, Iran's Fars news agency reported on Feb. 21.

Rouhani has addressed an official letter to the Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan and introduced Vaezi as president's special representative in Turkey's Affairs. Rouhani in his letter has emphasized that appointment of Vaezi is a sign of the Iranian government's interest to continue and boost all-round bilateral relations.

Vaezi has been introduced as a "high-ranking reliable official" in Rouhani`s letter.

Earlier, the minister was been appointed as co-chairman of the Iran-Turkey Joint Economic Commission.

Turkish prime minister visited Iran last month to bolster trade and energy ties between the two countries.

Iranian officials say trade between the countries stood at $22 billion in 2012, before dipping to $20 billion in 2013. It is expected to reach $30 billion in 2015.

Iran was Turkey's third largest export market in 2012. In fact, Iranian media reported, Turkey exported more than 20,000 products to Iran, among them gold and silver.

The gold trade boomed in 2012 when Ankara was paying for Iranian natural gas and oil imports with the Turkish lira and Tehran was using those deposits held in Turkey's state-run Halkbank to buy gold.

Some of the gold was held inside Turkey at the peak of the trade while some was taken to Dubai by couriers to be sold for foreign currency that was urgently needed by Iran as sanctions increasingly cut off access.